toshiba xde vs. hd-dvd & blu ray in up conversion

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JERAVICIOUS

Feb 25, 2009 - CST 3:55 PM

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YO I was just wondering if anyone has bought a toshiba xde and how the up-converting fares to players such as the toshiba hd-dvd xa2 or other players with the renon chip inside. Also are the blu ray players up-conversion better with this player too? Thanks!

Love Hendrix!

Feb 25, 2009 - CST 5:45 PM

says... Thanks for visiting DVDTOWN, and enjoy the news!

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A friend of mine purchased that Toshiba XDE player, and said it just did some minor "sharpening" improvements. He said often it made discs look worse (there are different settings you can choose). He preferred the upconversion quality of his Panasonic Blu-ray player over the XDE quality.

Toshiba's XA2 is in a class by itself (superior chip) when comparing it to their XDE, as it is supposed to have excellent upconversion without any added noise or "edge enhancement" being added as well (something lodged against the XDE from some users).

I would think that the latest Blu-ray players have good-enough upconversion quality for playing your DVDs.

-JOE- (Love Hendrix!)

JERAVICIOUS

Feb 25, 2009 - CST 9:09 PM

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Thanks Hendrix!! I do not know anyone who has bought the xde so I was really curious on how the up-conversion fared against HD players because I have some movies such as couching tiger hidden dragon where the transfer itself isn't the best (sad for a movie of that caliber), and when I played it on my XA2 there wasn't an improvement at all. So I thought the XDe might make a difference but I guess I'll stick to my XA2. If anyone does have an XDe, I'd like to hear what you think of the product for it may be a good gift for family members of mines who don't care about HD discs and want a good DVD player. Plus it's really cheap at circuit city.

spoonard

Feb 26, 2009 - CST 12:10 AM

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Quote:
when I played it on my XA2 there wasn't an improvement at all.

If it looks the same in 1080p as it does at 480i/p then that's something right there. Most HDTV's I think will just stretch out the 480 picture to fit 1080p, and that's why normal, non-upconverted movies look bad on a 1080p screen. Upconversion takes away all the artifacts and extra noise that is brought on by simply stretching out the picture to fit a larger resolution. At least I think that's how it works...

r-u-serious

Feb 26, 2009 - CST 2:09 PM

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Having just helped set up a new 40" LCD TV and theater system for my girlfriend, based on the XDE player, I'll share my thoughts on this little box.

I have it set to resolve detail and sharpness as opposed to the other two options, one being colour and the other being contrast...it would be a stellar machine if it could do all of these at once, but hey, it is just a $99 machine here in Canada and $79 in the US.

It does a fairly decent job resolving detail, providing there isn't a lot of motion in the image to begin with. It will render foreground objects remarkably well...until...there is motion. Once the motion starts, the image gets progressively softer.

Is it as good as a true HD or Blu player in upconverting, no with the exception of the cheapest HD and Blu players out there, but if we are talking about a machine, that when it was released was half the price of the cheapest Blu player out there, yes, it does a very decent job in boosting the resolution of your DVDs.

The only thing that will beat a hi def source is another hi def source...the Toshiba XDE-500 is not a hi def source.

Cheers all...

Henning

Feb 26, 2009 - CST 2:23 PM

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I reviewed the unit when it first arrived.

Read full review:
http://www.dvdtown.com/news/review-toshiba-xde-upscaling-1080p-dvd-player/5908

[Post edited by Henning on Feb 27, 2009 - CST 3:23 AM]

BruceAmes

Mar 2, 2009 - CST 9:39 PM

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I have the XDE player and have compared it to my XA2. First a little useful info on how to get the most of the player. You really need to calibrate the player to the display, using the sharpness setting you prefer (I prefer sharpness + color). Also those who see the most improvement tend to have medium sized displays (around 42" to 60" or so) and sit close to a 2:1 viewing distance to display size ratio. The player's 'trick' is that it use a dynamic algorithm to produce selective enhancements on the picture, NOT blanket enhancements like many people assume. There is no other player that does this.

The main drawbacks are that is doesn't pillarbox 4:3 content and doesn't have a resume feature. Therefore it will not upscale 4:3 content well at all (the XDE features only work in HDMI), unless you don't mind watched it stretched. But for most anamorphic DVDs, it will upscale beautifully, provided you don't have the sharpness of your HDTV set too high for the player. For the most part it upscales either as well or better than my XA2 does, and one can't ask for more than that from a $100 player. If you don't believe me, read the AVS thread in the DVD player forum, it's full of high praise for the player.

posters5

Mar 3, 2009 - CST 12:59 AM

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it's nice to see you here again, bruce.

i'm surprised that the XDE doesn't pillarbox 1.33:1 content. stretching makes any source look atrocious, and that's a big minus in my book.

as far as inexpensive upconverting options go, oppo's dvd players always get decent to high marks, as do toshiba's hd dvd players.

spoonard

Mar 3, 2009 - CST 1:45 AM

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It seems to me that Toshiba has the market cornered on upscaling. Their products seem to really know how to do it best. My HD-A35 is my SD player for my HDTV.